A Conservative Watchdog Is Fighting To See Pictures Of Osama Bin Laden's Dead Body

A conservative watchdog is asking a federal appeals court to shut
down government claims that releasing postmortem pictures of
Osama bin Laden would endanger national security.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
will consider today Judicial Watch's request for the release
of 52 pictures that were taken in May 2011 after U.S. forces
killed the mastermind behind the 9/11 attack, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Immediately following the raid, President Barack Obama said the
White House
wouldn't be releasing the pictures in the interest of
national security, the Post reported at the time.

"It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of
somebody who was shot in the head are
not floating around as an incitement to additional violence.
As a propaganda tool," Obama told CBS News in May 2011. "You know, that's not who
we are. You know, we don't trot out this stuff as trophies."

"A picture may be worth a thousand words. And perhaps moving
pictures bear an even higher value," Boasberg ruled. "Yet, in
this case, verbal descriptions of the death and burial of Osama
bin Laden will have to suffice, for this court will not order the
release of anything more."

Judicial Watch claimed it had a right to know "basic information
about the killing of Osama bin Laden," the group's president Tom
Fitton has said.